WHEN I first conceived the idea of writing the
following narrative, my design was to begin with a brief outline of the
discoveries already made on the coast of the Pacific, from Drake in 1579
to Vancouver in 1792; or, rather, down to the present time; but, on second
thoughts, I felt convinced that enough had been done already in that
branch of inquiry; or, at
least, that the further prosecution of it might be better left to those
who aspire to literary fame. Mine is an humbler ambition—not to figure as
an author, but to record faithfully, as a trader, the events in which I
bore a part; and, in so doing, to gratify a desire kindled by an
acquaintance with strange scenes and new fields of action, in a remote
country which is still but little known.
The progress of discovery
contributes not a little to the enlightenment of mankind; for mercantile
interest stimulates curiosity and adventure, and combines with them to
enlarge the circle of knowledge. To the spirit of enterprise developed in
the service of commercial speculation, civilized nations owe not only
wealth and territorial acquisitions, but also their acquaintance with the
earth and its productions. The illustration of these remarks will be found
in the following pages.
Mr. Astor of New York, a German by birth, but a
citizen of the United States, raised himself; by his adventurous and
enterprising spirit, from small beginnings to be one of the wealthiest and
most eminent merchants in America. Soon after his arrival in the United
States, about the year 1784, he commenced his commercial career in the
traffic of furs: at first on a very narrow scale, but gradually expanding
as his means increased. In this way he made visits to Canada, purchasing
furs in that country, and shipping them from thence to the London market:
and it is supposed that at this period his buoyant and aspiring mind
conceived the vast project of grasping in his own hands, at some future
day, the whole fur trade of North America.
The valuable furs and
peltries scattered in former days over the extensive forests, lakes, and
rivers of the Canadas, like the rich mines of Potosi and Mexico, invited
many adventurers. The French, for some time after settling there, carried
on an irregular but lucrative traffic in furs and peltries, with very
little opposition, until the year 1670, when the Hudson's Bay Company,
established by royal charter, took possession of the territory now called
"Bupert's Laud," or Hudson's Bay. The Canada, or as it was more generally
called, the North-West Company, was formed in 1787; and these soon became
the two great rival companies of the north, as we shall have occasion to
notice more fully hereafter. Next on the theatre of action appeared the
Mackina Company, which swept the warm regions of the south, as the two
others did those of the wintry north, until the American Fur Company,
established by Mr. Astor in 1809, commenced operations; but he, finding
the Mackina fur traders somewhat in his way,. bought out that Company, and
added its territorial resources in 1811 to those of the American Fur
Company. This body corporate was entitled the South-West, in
contradistinction to the North-West Company.
Mr. Astor now saw himself
at the head of all the fur trade of the south, and his intention was to
penetrate through the barriers of the Northern Company, so as eventually
to come into possession of all the fur trade east of the Rocky Mountains.
With this plan still before him, he now turned his views to the trade on
the coast of the Pacific, or that new field lying west of the Rocky
Mountains, and which forms the subject of our present narrative. In this
quarter the Russians alone had regular trading ports, opposite to
Kamtschatka, where they still carry on a considerable trade in furs and
seal skins, sending them across the Pacific direct to China. Their capital
is limited, and their hunting grounds almost entirely confined to the
sea-coast and islands around their establishments. The American coasting
vessels also frequent this quarter, collecting vast quantities of valuable
furs, which they convey to the Chinese market. This casual traffic by
coasters, yielded to their owners in former days, by means of the
returning cargo, an average clear gain of a thousand per cent. every
second year; but these vessels are not so numerous of late, nor are the
profits thus made so great as formerly.
The comprehensive mind of Mr.
Astor could not but see these things in their true light, and to perceive
that if such limited and desultory traffic produced such immense profits,
what might not be expected from a well-regulated trade, supported by
capital and prosecuted with system: at all events, the Russian trader
would then be confined within his own limits, and the coasting vessels
must soon disappear altogether.
Towards the accomplishment of the great
plan which he had in view, Mr. Astor now set about opening a new branch of
the fur trade on the Pacific, under the appellation of the "Pacific Fur
Company," the grand central depot of which was to be at the mouth of the
Columbia River, the "Oregon of the Spaniards." By this means he
contemplated carrying off the furs of all the countries west of the Rocky
Mountains; at the same time forming a chain of trading posts across the
Continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, along the waters of the great
Missouri: connecting by this chain the operations of the South- West
Company on the east, with that of the Pacific Fur Company on the west side
of the dividing ridge.
This grand commercial scheme, appearing now plain
and practicable, at least to men of sanguine disposition, gave much
satisfaction to the American public, who, from the results contemplated,
became deeply interested in its success; for all the rich cargoes of furs
and peltries thus to be collected annually over the vast expanse were to
be shipped in American vessels for the great China mart, there to be sold,
and the proceeds invested in a return cargo of teas, silks, beads, and
nankeens, and other articles of high demand in the United States; which
would not only prevent to some extent the American specie from going out
of the Union for such articles, but also turn the barren wilds of the
north and far west into a source of national wealth. Some, however, of the
more sagacious and influential among the Americans themselves observed to
Mr. Astor at the time, that his plan would be likely to give umbrage to
the British, and arouse them to assert more speedily their claims of prior
discovery to the Oregon quarter, and that such a step would operate
against him. To these suggestions Mr. Astor simply observed, If he had
thought of that, but intended chiefly to employ in his undertaking British
subjects, and that he should on that account give less offence; besides,"
added he, "the claims of prior discovery and territorial right are claims
to be settled by Government only, and not by an individual."
Mr. Astor's
plans, hitherto known only to a few, now began to develop themselves more
publicly. On the first intimation of the scheme, the North- Westerns took
the alarm; for having already, in the prosecution of their trade,
penetrated to the west side of the Rocky Mountains, in the direction of
New Caledonia and the north branch of the Columbia, where they expected to
reap a rich harvest, they viewed Astor's expedition to that quarter with a
jealous eye, according to the old adage that "two of a trade seldom
agree;" but others again extolled the brilliant project, as the brightest
gem in the American Union, and particularly many of the retired partners
of the North-West Company, who, not being provided for in some late
arrangements, had left that concern in disgust, and therefore were the
most likely to oppose with effect the ambitious views of their former
coadjutors. These were just the men Mr. Astor had in his eye; melt of
influence and experience among savages, and who from their earlier days
had been brought up in, and habituated to, the hardships of the Indian
trade. To several of these persona Mr. Astor disclosed his plans and made
proposals, whereupon Messrs. M'Kay, M'Kenzie, M'Dougall, and Stuart,
entered into his views, and became partners in the new concern. The former
of these gentlemen had accompanied Sir Alexander M'Kenzie in his voyages
of discovery to the North Polar Sea in 1789, and to the Pacific in 1793,
the narratives of which are before the public; and most of the others had
equal experience, and were all of them in some way or other related to the
great men at the head of the North-West Company.
Articles of association
and co-partnership were therefore entered into and concluded at New York,
in the spring of 1810, between those gentlemen and Mr. Astor, establishing
the firm of the Pacific Fur Company, as already noticed; to which firm
five other partners, namely, Messrs. Hunt, Crooks, Miller, M'Lellan, and
Clarke, were soon afterwards added. The association was not a joint-stock
concern; Mr. Astor alone furnished the capital, amounting to 200,000
dollars, divided into 100 shares of 2000 dollars each, with power to
increase the capital to 500,000 dollars.
The association was formed for
a period of twenty years, but with this proviso, that it was to be
dissolved if it proved either unprofitable or impracticable, after a trial
of five years; during which trial, however, Mr. Astor, as stock-holder,
was alone to bear all expenses and losses, the other partners giving only
their time and labour. Of the above shares, Mr. Astor held fifty in his
own hands; Mr. Hunt, as his representative and chief manager of the
business, five; while the other partners, who were to carry on the trade
with the Indians, were to have four each, in the event of the business
succeeding. The remaining shares were reserved for the clerks, who joined
the concern as adventurers, without any other remuneration than their
chance of success at the end of the five years' trial The only exceptions
were Mr. Robert Stuart and myself; who were to have our promotion at the
end of the third year. From the proportion of interest, or number of
shares in the hands of the stockholder and his representative, it will
appear evident that the other partners, however unanimous they might be,
could never have gained a majority of votes in any case over those which
might have been by proxy appointed to represent Astor.
At the head
depot, or general rendezvous, was to be stationed Mr. Astor's
representative. The person appointed to this important trust was Wilson
Price Hunt, a gentleman from New Jersey, who alone, of the whole party,
had never been engaged in the Indian trade; yet his active habits,
perseverance, and enterprise, soon made good his want of experience, and
enabled him to discharge the duties of his station. In him was also vested
the chief authority, or, in his absence, in M'Dougall. It was therefore to
either or to both of these gentlemen that all Mr. Astor's measures were
made known, and all his cargoes consigned.
At the time when these novel
schemes were first agitated, I was in Upper Canada; and the first
intimation I had of them was in a letter from Mr. M'Kay, the senior
partner, requesting an interview with me at Montreal. To Montreal I
accordingly went in the month of May; and there, for the first time, I saw
the gilded prospectus of the new Company, and, accepting the proposals
made to me by Mr. Astor, was the first to join the expedition;— and who at
the time would not have joined it, for, although the North-Westerns tried
to throw all the cold water of the St. Lawrence on the project, yet they
could not extinguish the flame it had spread abroad. The flattering hopes
and golden prospects held out to adventurers, so influenced the public
mind, that the wonder-stricken believers flocked in from all quarters to
share in the wonderful riches of the far west.
It need not be wondered
at, if, under the influence of such extravagant expectations, many
applicants appeared; but in accordance with Astor's plan, that the
business should be carried on only by persons of well-tested merit and
experience, for on their habits of perseverance and enterprise alone
rested all hopes of ultimate success, his assistants were selected with
more than ordinary care, every poor fellow that engaged being led to
believe that his fortune was already made. Here Messrs. Franchere, Pullet,
M'Gillis, Farnham, and M'Lennan, besides Mr. Stuart and myself, joined the
adventurers; besides five tradesmen or mechanics, and twenty-four canoe
men, the best that could be found of their classes.
Operations were now
deemed requisite for the accomplishment of the Company's views; therefore,
while one party, headed by Mr. Hunt, was ordered to make its way across
the Continent by land, another party, headed by Mr. M'Kay, was to proceed
by sea in the Tonquin, a ship of 300 tons, and mounting twelve guns. The
Tonquin's course was round Cape Horn, for the north-west coast. The
Columbia River was to be the common destination of both parties. The land
party at its outset consisted of only seventeen persons, but Mr. Hunt's
object was to augment that number to about eighty as he passed along, by
means of American trappers and hunters from the south. Here M'Kenzie
strongly recommended Mr. Hunt to take all his men from Canada, as too much
time might probably be lost in collecting them from the south; and
besides, Canadians, as he thought, would answer much better; but Mr. Hunt
adhered to his first plan.
The arrangement of these two expeditions, in
which M'Kay, whose life had been spent in voyaging through the Indian
countries, and who was nowise qualified as a merchant, had resigned the
inland voyage to a gentleman, bred to mercantile pursuits, but
unacquainted with this his new mode of travelling, exhibited such an
egregious inversion of the ordinary rules of prudence, as gave rise to
much comment. Matters being so far settled, Mr. Hunt, who was now
seconded by Mr. M'Kenzie, left La Chine, nine miles south of Montreal,
with the land expedition, in the beginning of July; and, on the 20th of
the same month, the ship party, consisting of three partners, five clerks,
Mr. Stuart, and myself, five mechanics, and fourteen canoe men, left
Montreal for New York, where we were to embark. Of this number, however,
M'Kay and eight of the most expert voyageurs proceeded in a bark-canoe
through the States: on all such occasions there is a kind of mutual
understanding between both parties, that is, between the canoe men and the
canoe, the former undertaking to carry the latter over the land part of
the journey, while the latter is bound to carry the others safe over
water. The appearance of this unusual kind of craft on the American
waters, with the cheerful chantings of its crew, their feathered caps and
sylvan appearance, as they approached the gay city of New York, attracted
such a crowd of spectators of all classes around them, as left but little
space to land; but what was the astonishment, when, in the twinkling of an
eye, two of the crew were seen to shoulder their craft, capable of
containing two tons weight, and to convey it to a place of safety on terra
firma. Mr. Astor, who happened to be present, was so delighted with the
vivacity and dexterity of the two men, that he gave them an eagle to drink
his health; then turning round, observed to some gentlemen who were
standing by, that "six Americans could not do what these two brawny
fellows had done," which observation gave rise to some further remarks,
when Mr. M'Kay, with an air of confidence, challenged the swiftest New.
York boat for a three mile race, offering to bet ten to one on his canoe
men, but, after what had been witnessed, no one appeared disposed to risk
his money. It is scarcely necessary in this place to observe, that the
Canadian voyageurs are among the most expert and venturesome canoe men in
the world. |